Met Police apologises to Katie Price and son Harvey for offensive messages

The Metropolitan Police has apologised to Katie Price and her son Harvey following the dismissal of two officers and the barring of six ex-colleagues over offensive WhatsApp messages.

The force also named Officer B, one of the sacked officers who had been granted anonymity during the six-day misconduct hearing, as Pc Dave Selway.

Commander Jon Savell said: ‘I was repulsed and ashamed to read the deeply offensive messages sent by these officers and I utterly condemn their behaviour.

‘I am deeply sorry to those who have been the subject of such awful, disgusting messages.

‘The commissioner has been very clear about our commitment to finding and getting rid of anyone in the Met who has these highly offensive attitudes and today’s result is an example of that.

‘I have over 600 colleagues in our professional standards directorate – a team we have significantly grown – whose absolute focus is on this critically important piece of work.

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‘We are under no illusion that public trust and confidence in us depends on us re-establishing our integrity and professionalism.’

The statement concluded: ‘This is another painful day for us. We know there are more uncomfortable days to come as we turn over the stones and uncover others who corrupt our integrity.’

On Thursday (April 13), eight serving and former Met officers were found guilty of ‘gross misconduct’ over ‘discriminatory and offensive’ messages they shared.

The officers – seven men and one woman – were found to have sent sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, and ableist comments in a WhatsApp group called ‘Secret Squirrel S**t’ between May 17, 2016 and June 26, 2018.

Then on Friday, it was announced that Pc Glynn Rees amd Pc Dave Selway had been dismissed by the disciplinary panel at Palestra House in Southwark, central London, following a six-day hearing.

The pair, along with former sergeant Luke Thomas, former acting sergeant Luke Allen and former constables Kelsey Buchan, Lee South, Darren Jenner, and Carlo Francisco, were also barred for life from the police service.

Mr Thomas, Mr Allen, Ms Buchan, Mr South and Mr Jenner resigned from the Met after the messages were unearthed, while Mr Francisco was dismissed in July 2022 for ‘an unrelated matter’ involving ‘discreditable conduct’, according to the force.

Their texts included derogatory comments about 20-year-old Mr Price, who suffers from Prader–Willi syndrome and is autistic, and about a junior female officer, known in the hearings as Officer A.

Legal chair Christopher McKay said their messages had caused ‘significant harm’ to the ‘already tarnished reputation of the Metropolitan Police Service’ (MPS) and had upset Katie and Harvey Price.

He said: ‘Racist, sexist, homophobic and transphobic attitudes revealed in the posts and comments have undermined the reputation of the Metropolitan Police Service as a fair and impartial body.

‘Harm has been caused to Harvey Price and his mother, who have learned of the posts recently, and has resulted in a loss of confidence in the MPS by Katie Price.

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‘Officer A is now aware of the insulting way in which she was referred to by members of the group. She must have been upset.’

Meanwhile, former glamour model Ms Price, 44, welcomed the guilty verdict this week.

Appearing on 5 News, the reality star said ‘justice had been done’.

‘Not only that they are professionals that we trust, that we should trust who have done this… and now an example is going to be put out there and something is going to be done,’ said Ms Price.

She added: ‘What I’ve actually seen and read what these police officers have said it’s beyond like beyond what you could ever imagine how evil and how spiteful people can actually be, and how they even think it’s funny. It’s actually disgusting… Harvey doesn’t deserve this, no one does.’

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